Richard Daystrom

Notes

One of the most influential scientists of the 23rd century, considered to be comparable to Einstein, Kazanga, and Sitar of Vulcan. Amongst his greatest achievements was creating the duotronic technology which revolutionised computer systems of the time, a feat he accomplished at the age of 24. Duotronic computers were standard equipment aboard Federation Starships of the mid 23rd century, and Daystrom both the Nobel and Zee-Magnees prizes for the breakthrough. By the time he reached fifty years of age, Daystrom had begun to feel that it would be difficult to live up to his past glory. He was infuriated with collegues who built on his work whilst giving him less credit than he thought he deserved, even calling his discoveries accidents.

Daystrom hoped to recapture his earlier success with the development of multitronic technology, a computer system based on the engrams of the Human brain which would be able to think for itself. Daystrom designed five different generations of the system, which he dubbed M-1 through M-5. He intended his new system to be a control system for Federation Starships, capable of running all of the normal functions of the vessel including both running the onboard systems and making command judgements. The first four systems failed, but the M-5 was successful in all simulations. In 2268 the M-5 unit was installed aboard the USS Enterprise for live trials. The unit performed flawlessley at first, but rapidly began to display highly flawed judgement. Under the control of the unit the Enterprise attacked several other ships, killing hundreds of Starfleet officers. Fortunately Captain Kirk was able to convince the M-5 that its actions were in contravention to its designed purpose, and it shut down voluntarily in time to avoid further destruction. The stress of seeing his system fail so utterly left Daystrom devastated, and he underwent a mental collapse. He was subsequently committed to a total rehabilitation center.1

Despite this debacle, Doctor Daystrom's name continued to carry great weight in academic circles. The reknowned 24th century Daystrom Institute was a well known facility for learning and science and technology development; graduates included Doctor Leah Brahms.2 Vash claimed to be planning to donate the fabled Tox Utat to the Daystrom Institute, though she hinted that she may require a price for the 'donation'.3 In 2366 Lieutenant Commander Data sent a copy of his logs regarding the creation of the android Lal to the Galor Four annex of the Daystrom Institute.4 Commander Bruce Maddox worked in the Cybernetics division, of the Institute in 2367 as part of his ongoing research into positronic technology.5